With over 20 years of management experience in the oral healthcare industry, David Fox brings a strategic and seasoned perspective to the Willo leadership team. His extensive background spans leadership roles across early-stage ventures and global brands, where he has demonstrated a talent for scaling businesses and driving sustainable growth. David has successfully negotiated, integrated, and led the acquisition of more than 10 brands and companies, proving his expertise in strategic expansion and integration. Under his leadership, Willo is revolutionizing oral care for children.
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Episode Transcript
M and T Bank present CEOs you should know, driven
by Western Transportation Group and iHeart Media. Joining us right
now is David Fox. He's the chief executive officer of
Willow David, A pleasure to meet you and thanks for
being here. I'm just kind of curious how things are
going for you right now we're speaking to you. You're
in Philadelphia? Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I am I'm outside of Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Yes, what happened in your life that led to you
where you are today? And maybe some advice that you
might have for younger Americans who aspire to be what
you are or do what you do. So can we
begin with just a little bit about your background, Like,
first of all, can you just tell us where did
you grow up and what was that like in your childhood?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Yeah, I have a feeling it's kind of a series
of somewhat random events that led me to where I
am today. But so, just going back to childhood, I
grew up in a suburb of New York City and
Westchester County, kind of traditional middle class upbringing. What's interesting
(01:07):
and pertinent, My father and both grandfathers happened to be dentists,
So I kind of grew up around that my father
told me, don't ever be a dentist whatever you do,
which was kind of interesting advice.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, I'm just kind of curious why he said that.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
He practiced kind of his core practice years were in
the sixties, seventies, and eighties, and he was kind of
caught between the old what was called drill and fill dentistry,
where basically most of the work was just filling cavities
(01:51):
cleaning teeth, and.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Then today where it's the big money and most of the.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Work is around cosmetic dentistry at the you know, implants
or caps or the things that are much kind of
higher end than drill and fill, And he was at
the very kind of end of the drill and fill.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Era and at the beginning of the cosmetic area. So
it really dentistry was.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Kind of in a i guess, a bit of a
valley during many of his peak practicing years, and he
never really got to the point where he was doing
cosmetic dentistry that we kind of most of the dentists
focus on today. So he was in a little dentistry
was not very glamorous. Going back to the middle part,
(02:38):
even the latter part of the twentieth century, so was everybody.
Nobody likes to come see the dentist. It's not very uplifting.
You should think about doing something else.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So here you are, growing up in a suburb of
New York City and dad says, don't do what I do.
Don't be a dentist. What did you want to be
as a kid? Do you recall?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, I wanted to be the shortstop for the Yankees,
and then Derek Jeter came along and kind of that
dream went down the tubes.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
So no, I wanted to be in business.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I was always fascinated, much more fascinated by business than
kind of.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
The medical area or a legal area anything like that.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
So I I think I had an aptitude for that.
So I went to college State University of York at Albany,
majored in accounting, got out worked for you know, one
of the Big Eight back then, it's now the Big Four.
I got my CPA. Was the worst job I ever had.
I hated being an auditor. I went back to University
(03:47):
of Chicago Business School to get a degree in finance
and marketing, and that's where I kind of decided I
really wanted to be kind of in the I'll say
it the finance slash marketing world.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
You and I share a few things in life. Number One,
my father was a lawyer and told me at a
young age, don't become a lawyer. And I too wanted
to play for the Yankees. I wanted to be the
second basement. So maybe you and I would have been
a good double play combo. I don't know if that
would have worked out or not, but I am kind
of curious. Was there an event or a person or
(04:21):
a mentor that you look back in your life that
had sort of a profound impact on you in your direction?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah, I would say it came a little bit later.
But when I was in business school, I was exposed
to a lot of different professions, whether it be corporate
finance or investment banking, emerging private equity, consulting, the Mackenzies
(04:51):
of the world, and consumer products.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And as I kind of went through business school.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
And we went to you know, very lunch and learn
sessions and things of that sort, I just kind of
gravitated to more tangible things that and I just kind
of fell in love at.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
That time with really consumer products.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
So that was probably, you know, it probably evolved over
a couple of years I was in school, but and
I'm not sure there was one specific mentor, but that's
kind of how I gravitated.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
To what I'm doing today. So you fell in love
with consumer products? Did you always have in the back
of your mind your goal was to become a chief
executive officer?
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Probably? Yes.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I started out working for General, the old General Foods company,
my planes, and that was a lot of fun, working
on some fun brands like Jello and things of that sort.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
But along the way, I worked with a lot of.
Speaker 3 (05:54):
Really smart people and decided at that point, being an analyst,
I really want to learn, but I really kind of
had my eye on the corner office at a I
was probably overly ambitious, but that decided, you know, that's really.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Really I wanted to be.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So I kind of progressed along that path, you know,
traditional route. I worked in finance and marketing and went
to several number of companies as I kind of, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Continue to learn.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
But I got to the point kind of mid career,
i'll say, about twenty years.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Ago, where.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
The corporate bureaucracy was just something that was really bothering me.
I felt like I was becoming less and less impactful,
having less influence over the course of events.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
It was just too.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Big and too many layers, and that was kind of
the defining moment, right I excided I wanted to go
someplace smaller where I could really kind of run the
ship as opposed to just, uh, you know, being a
cogon wheel.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I want to ask you a little bit about Willow
in a second and the new product that you have
out there, But before we do that, more of a
macroeconomic question for you, David, what is your view right
now on the business climate in America and globally today?
I mean, as consumers, we are getting so many different
messages from so many different regions and areas in this economy.
(07:34):
How do you view it?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, long term, I'm very bullish in general. I think,
you know, the industry industries continue to innovate, you know, AI,
you know, we'll see, but I think that's going to
you know, have a major impact on pretty much everybody's career,
and you know, hopefully in a good way. So I
(07:58):
think this entry in the world in general, continue to innovate,
continue to make better products.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
So I'm bullish in that regard.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
In the nearer term, I think the uncertainty that is
around the tariffs is certainly causing confusion pain.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think in the long term that will settle out.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
They typically do, so I would say a long term, bullish,
short term, near term, I think it's a little bit
uncertain and rocky.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
When you meet people, let's talk a little bit about Willow.
What do you tell them about the company? What do
you tell them about what you do for a living.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Our company goal is to change the scope of oral
care for kids in the country and ultimately the world.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
What we like to.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Say is the number one disease in the world, certainly
in the US's periodomtal disease. You know, it's not a
killer per se, but it's the number one disease.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Over fifty percent of all adults have it.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Among kids, the number one disease, states cavities. Half of
kids by the time they're six or seven out of a cavity.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
That leads to problems down the line beyond just the
baby teeth.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So our mantra is that kids won't don't and can't brush.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
They don't have the patients, they.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Don't have the dexterity or the knowledge of exactly how
to brush and fun and none.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
They don't like it, so they won't do it.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
So that Willow exists to make rushing easy and fun
for kids, so they'll do it. Any toothbrush if a
kid knows how to brush, is motivated, takes the right time,
will work fine.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
But they don't.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So Willow exists to improve kids oral health plain and
simple by making it simple and fun.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And Willow has a new product called Brushbot. I'm just
kind of curious of what do you tell parents? What
does it do? Why are you excited about it?
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah? The way to.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Think about the Brushbot and the autoflow because they're fundamentally similar.
One automatically injects and evacuates the toothpaste, but the brushead
motion is the same. It makes a child independent. They
can do it without supervision. All they have to do
is put it in their mouth and push a button,
so it provides independence. We have an app that's gamified
(10:44):
so it becomes fun. It's something they can do independently
and something that're going to brush perfectly every time for
two minutes. The analogy that we use is that it's a.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Little bit like a car wash for your teeth. Familiar
with the car wash.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
All you have to do is get your tires in
the groove and then they push a button and your
cars washed perfectly every time.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
That's really what Willow is.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
As long as you put your teeth in the mouthpiece,
you push a button, it's going to brush your teeth
perfectly every time two minutes. The average child probably brushes
about twenty seconds. They brush their front teeth. They don't
brush the backside of the teeth. They don't brush their
back teeth. So this does it in a fun and
(11:29):
a complete way.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
David here at I heard we call this segment CEOs.
You should know, so I'm just kind of curious. My
final question for you is this, is there anything for
folks who are listening to this that you would like
them to know about yourself or your company that we
haven't touched upon.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, I would just say about the company. What we've learned.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
I've learned is approximately thirty percent of all children have
some sort of what we call neurodiversity, whether they're add
they have sensory issues, auto down syndrome. Those kids are
particularly problematic brushing their teeth. They often have to be
(12:08):
sedated when they go to ve nanas twice a year
for deep cleaning because they just simply don't brush. So
for all children, we're providing a really great solution.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It will help them eliminate cavities.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
For about a third of the population, it's literally a
lifesaver and we are getting many, many reviews feedback from
parents that are in tears about their child, you know,
finally for the first time brushing their teeth. So I
never thought a toothbrush would bring a parent to tears,
But among all the populations, that's the one that's.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
I think the most part.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
We're working terrific. That's just great. David Fox, chief executive
Officer of Willow David, thanks a lot for your time.
Really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Our community partner, M and T Bank supports CEOs, you
should know is part of their ongoing commitment to building
strong communities, and that starts by backing the businesses within them.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
As a bank for communities, M and T believes in
dedicating time, talent, and resources to help local businesses thrive
because when businesses succeed, our communities succeed.
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